Friday, April 22, 2011

stress hormones much?

This is a post purely about parenting and the resulting stress hormones. If posts about the progeny of others isn't your thing, you may wish to not read on.

Yesterday morning at school was wonderful. We were dying Easter eggs (serious Gr. 4 fun) and exploring the wonders of powerpoint, they were creating slides and learning about it. Wonderful. At noon, I finally got the chance to check my board email and read the email that was sent at 9:30 to inform me that my 12 year old was not at school. He was supposed to be at school, he was ready when I left and only had to walk to his bus stop at the end of the street. I thought perhaps he had missed the bus and was still at home. Called home. No answer. Spent the next hour calling home from the school phone, and even tried with my cell phone (outside in the freezing parking lot) in case he was afraid of getting in trouble with his school (all phone calls from the school have the school board identification for caller id and he wouldn't know which school was calling). I went outside with my blackberry to send a message on Facebook. He hadn't been on Facebook all morning. Starting to panic. Called school, finally got a hold of the principal to let him know Kiddo was supposed to be at school, he's not at home, could they check to see if it was a mistake on the attendance. My stress hormones are through the roof at this point, it's been hours since anyone knew where he was. I texted hubs at work, he left and headed home and checked all of the friends houses in the neighbourhood where Seamus might have gone. I'm in serious panic mode at this point. It is not like my child to not let us know where he is, and even if he hadn't gone to school he would have called me to tell me. All of the parents who are reading this know exactly how I'm feeling and the awful images going through my head at this point. Hubs finally gets a hold of the school again, and is told that it was a supply teacher who had made a mistake and he was at the tech centre all along. So relieved. Fall apart and sob at desk, thankfully my students were outside for recess. Mistakes happen, but parents need a phone call at the beginning of the day to ensure child safety. If I had received a phone call at the beginning of the day, the whole mess could have been resolved quickly, and the mistake could have been discovered. And the panic would have been averted. Seamus' school found out that I'm like a jack russell, yappy and hyper and jump the gun, but dealing with his dad is far worse. He's more quiet but when he lets loose, look out. Much more like the dogs Brazilians use to hunt and kill jaguar. Quiet and deadly. I'm guessing they'd rather deal with the jack russell.

So a couple of pomtinis later last night, I started to calm down. Extra B complex vitamins and magnesium today to try to counteract the stress. Probably a B12 shot next week would be in order too. And yoga. Lots of yoga.

It's been that kind of couple of weeks. A week ago university bound daughter was laid off from kick-ass job that was going to pay for her first 2 years of uni. Had to help her to decide where to accept so she wouldn't lose her entrance scholarships. Too much stress. Daughter still looking for job to help to pay tuition and res.

So grateful for the extra long weekend to gear up for the next few weeks. Amazed and awed by the reason we have a long weekend. No doubt will get over emotional at Easter church services. I usually do, however after the stress lately, emotions are already running high and tears are much closer to the surface than usual. Looking forward to spending time with my siblings and nephews. Gotta love family.

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter, peace and love and zero stress. Especially of the misplaced child variety.

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